Ghar Battlesuit Squads

The spiteful, war-like Ghar are small, repulsive creatures with hunched torsos, spindly arms and bow legs, but they are rarely seen out of their huge, armoured battlesuits. Ghar battlesuits form the core of the Ghar Empire army and are used by all Ghar wherever they can. The Ghar regard their Scourer and Assault battlesuit troopers as the elite of their forces: tough, powerful and dangerous.

The tripod Ghar battlesuits consist of uniquely tough, composite armour over which is projected a rudimentary magnetic armour field. The suits are sized for their Ghar occupants and can only be controlled by Ghar with spinal plugs. All Ghar battlesuits have Res 12, which is not considered an armour bonus, have  a move of 4″ (M4), have a low Ag of 3 and take up three transport spaces (including the pilot). They also have plasma ampli􀀭ers and are Scramble Proof. The battlesuits come in three flavours: ‘ordinary’ Scourer suits, Assault suits and Bomber suits.

The Ghar plasma amplifiers are key to the suit’s, offering a significant bonus in teh form of an extra order die – if it works, tht is – but also having a disadvantage. At the start of each turn, a player who wishes to use a battlesuit squad’s amplifiers puts an extra order dice into the bag. The first dice allocated to the squad is handled as normal, but the squad can then be given a second order die when it is drawn and attempt to activate their amplifer (the amp).

The amplifier is Erratic(5), meaning it only works on a result of 1-5 on a D10 and breaks down on the roll of a 10.  If the amp is activated, teh unit becomes MOD2 for a turn and can use the extra order die like any other order die. At the end of a turn, the first die recovered from the squad is its amp die, the second being its normal order die.

The downside of an amplifier is that on a lucky hit and a failed Res save on a 10, not only iss the model lost but the amplifier explodes, inflicting an SV0 blast hit on everything in 5″.

Weapons

Scourer suits are armed with a multi-purpose scourer cannons and a battle claw. The scourer cannon has three modes: a single-shot mode at SV4 (actually a stream of shots in quick succession at the same target); a ‘scatter’ mode with two shots at SV2, and a light disruptor cannon doing 1D4 blast damage. The disruptor also inflicts an extra pin when it hits and is damaging to buddies: one hit from a disruptor blast may be allocated to buddies. The battle claw uses the suit’s boosted strength of 10 and has a powerful, vice-like grip (SV3).

The feared Assault suits have a gouger, a crude electro‐grapnel type weapon that fires a short-ranged, crude, grapple shaped charge that spins towards its target and generates a strong series of electromagnetic pulses when it hits. Its use is to disable enemy units prior to engaging at close quarters, enemies going Down when hit. The suit has a plasma claw, an oversized (SV5) battle calw and also fires disruptor dischargers in PBS – whilst only Blast D3, these are disruptor bombs so cause an extra pin.

Bomber suits replace the Scourer’s scourer cannon with a long-range bomber cannon. this launches a cluster (Blast D5) of SV2 disruptor bombs at long ranges. Like all disruptor bombs, these are Breaching SV3, causing automatic damage to buildings that are targeted.

Command suits

One Scourer squad can be upgraded to be a command squad with a Force Commander or High Commander replacing one of the troopers. The commander was a Wound and the Tough special rules, so it tough to kill, and also an enhanced Co and Init.

Whilst there can only be one High Commander in a Ghar army, they have an enhanced Command and Hero range of 20″. Whilst Outcasts cannot normally use the Co and Init from non-Outcasts, they can use a High Commander’s Init and Co.

Ex-Battle Goup Nine Commanders are an occasional, easily-recognised sight on the battlefield. They took up the habit of displaying trophies from vanquished enemies on their suits.

Assembly, painting, customising

There are a number of articles on painting and modifying Ghar battlesuits. One that might be of interst is a conversion of a damaged battlesuit by Nicky Gardiner.

Off-Nexus, we also know of a fast-forward assembly video by fan Matt Schreiber in Rocky’s War Room Ghar Battlesuit Assembly.

The Tabletop Warlords have a youtube video about using Assault Suits (v1 related but much is still applicable).

James Turner also gives us his thoughts on how to assemble and paint an assault squad on his t-i-c blog.

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